Newsletter
for alumni of The Abbey School, Mt. St. Benedict, Trinidad and Tobago, W.I.
Caracas, 25 of April 2015 No. 703
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Dear
Friends,
By
now you have realized that we passed the 700 mark. No piece of cake!!!
You
are still receiving the Circular, and the photos.
Do
not forget me. I expect a little help
from you
Ladislao
-----------------------------------------------------------------------.
Glen
Mckoy
24
Ap
My
Dear Sir Phil,
I
got this from Sir Bandit.
I
wrote to him and asked him, if he will tell you?
Still
waiting for a reply, but in the meanwhile, I am sending you this, because I
promised you, I will give you an answer.
This
is it. I hope this will bring closure
for you, on this matter.
I
know you both were only little boys, really so young, but so much heart &
soul, and yet very aware of personal feelings.
I
went to Mount when I was all most 12 yrs. old, any younger than that would be
crazy, too young.
I
love you guys, for living through all that, and still turning out to be really
good people.
Thank
you for your trust in me,
I
have the greatest respect for you, my brother & friend.
I
will cc. Sir Ladislao & Sir Nigel also, as we three work with many brothers
on personal matters, also its good to know, mission accomplished,
God
Bless Our Brotherhood.
Yours
Faithfully
Glen
McKoy.
My
cell -902-237-7139. Have a good day.
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From:
calypsobandit@live.com
Subject:
RE: ATTEMPTING TO STRAIGHTEN OUT MY RECOLLECTION
Date:
Thu, 23 Apr 2015 17:38:54 -0400
Hi
glen,
The
more I hear the more I think I am somewhere in that picture with Phil,
It
could be very well that I am the boy that attacked Phil for no reason
I
remember myself as a little small wired up terrier always ready to cuff or kick
or pelt a stone in your ass or hit you over the head with a book.
I
remember they stop me once from beating a boy name Peacock because he was
always sniffling with a handkerchief to his nose.
Then,
once little fat Azar said something to me and I kicked him down a hill - then I
stole Azar’s birthday cake that his mother had brought for him so that me and
my boys could eat it and he cried like a baby so we gave him a piece of his own
cake.
I
was always fighting a boy called Maingot.
Fought
a guy name Collin Phillips in a football match on the field and kicked a few
others for spite instead of the ball.
I
was not very good, and I guess that was my way of making up for it, and ready
to take on anybody, and I was frigging very small and tiny,
Maybe
that was my way of saying, don't fuck with me.
Regardless,
good - bad or indifferent - I loved my days at Mount - shit started early in my
life, and you know something, glen?
I
think they still have more to come
"Bandit"
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------.
From:
mckoy43glen@hotmail.com
Date:
Thu, 23 Apr 2015 20:50:32 +0000
My
Dear Sir Phil,
Thank
you for your letter, I am still absorbing same.
I
cannot say for sure the name of who told me this, I mentioned but lost exactly
who said it.
Please
forgive me I hear so many stories from so many brothers, from so many different
years, that some of the stories begins to sound the same ha! ha!
Sir
Bandit or Sir Trevor were there, I am not from that circle, however I will try
my best to give you an answer, to your question.
Now,
you guys are from the begining of our existence, I was not even born yet,
however I will take on this impossible mission.
Take
Care My Dear Brother, Sir Phil, so good to hear from you, all the best
Glen.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------.
Date:
Thu, 23 Apr 2015 01:08:22 +0000
From:
heatherset8@yahoo.com
Hi
Glen,
As
you are aware I don't as a rule have anything much to say on this site. However, ever since it transpired that
someone had recalled the event of my very first day at MSB seventy years ago
now, when as it happened I was attacked by another boy, I have been intrigued
as to who it was that had remembered the seemingly obscure event of my first
day as a boarder at the Mount and having been attacked firstly by someone that
I couldn't recall to mind, and then seemingly thereafter by the whole school as
I remember only too well.
As
I had told you previously, I was absolutely astonished to find that there was
someone that could actually recall to mind what to anyone else must have been
an absolutely obscure happening, and as a consequence, ever since learning that
there had in fact been such a person, I have remained in a twist over it
wondering who on earth it was that could have recalled to mind what must to
anyone else have been an absolutely obscure event that happened such a very
long time ago, and so one supposes as a consequence that it must have been
meaningful to them for some reason or the other.
As
a consequence, I have remained curious to say the least, and with a nagging
desire to know who it was that had in fact been able to recall such an event
that took place all of those years ago, as I had assumed that I would have been
the only person in the whole world that would have been able to recall the
event of which I speak, inasmuch as I do not think that I myself would have
recalled it had it not been such a meaningful event in my life due to my
upbringing, and so I am still flabbergasted, intrigued, and very curious indeed
to know just who on earth it was that had informed you of the event to which I
refer.
So
staggered am I to have learned of that individual’s recall that I would quite
simply hate to drop dead still in ignorance of who it was that had told you
about it. It had to be someone that is
at least as old as I am for them to have been there to observe it. So interested am I to know who it was that I
have been attempting to back-track one way or another to see just who had
commenced their sojourn at the Mount at the same time as myself, only to have
my recall shaken up a bit more when referring back to a most interesting
communiqué that you had received from Desmond Smith back in 2010 telling of his
first days at the Mount, being something that I thought to be extremely
interesting indeed, and thinking that we are all lucky to have had someone like
him to be able to go back to the very start of it all and to let us know what
it was like at the time.
However,
what he had to say, although certainly ringing true in every respect that I was
able to determine, did nevertheless shake me up a bit as he states that the
boarding school did not open for business until 1945, when it seemed to me that
I had commenced at MSB when I was seven years of age, this having been a year
younger than what was normally permitted at the time, with David De Castro
commencing at the same time as myself, he having been born in the same year,
i.e., 1936, but early in that year, whilst I only turned eight in November of
1944. It would not perturb me except for
the fact that I do recall that there had been a considerable issue with the
Monk that visited my mother’s Hotel in St. Ann’s at the time when assessing me
for the purpose of permitting me to enrol that year - remembering that it had
been important to my mother that I be able to attend as a boarder from that
year inasmuch as she had sold her Hotel that was at that time called the MONACO
HOTEL, it having been sold as I recall to a French chef whose name as I recall
was, Pierre De Guillen (phonetic spelling) who upon purchase of it subsequently
changed the name to the NORMANDIE which it still is today, although now a much
improved place indeed. It had been
important that I be able to enrol at MSB for that year even though I was seven
years of age and thus under-aged, as she had already bought another hotel in
Guyana (British Guyana then) that she called the MONTROSE, in Georgetown.
So
my recall of being seven years of age when I first commenced as a boarder fits
with the year 1944, as I would have turned eight in November of 1944, which
seems to fit nicely with my recall, however he states that the new boarding
school on the Hill only opened for business in 1945 - can anyone enlighten me?
Oddly enough I can in my mind still smell the new cement of which the school
was constructed even after all of these years - an amazing mechanism the brain!
As
an aside, as it were, now that I am getting on a bit I am being made to take
note of my age by the fact that so many of my friends and even notable
personages whose names I have been familiar with all of my life are now
dropping around me like flies, making me feel a little as if I walking through
a mine field, and that at some point one of them is of course going to get me. I do not myself feel old at all, but one is
made aware of one’s increasing age by others’ reaction to you - these days
people are especially polite to me, and open the doors for me, and pick up
things that I have been silly enough to drop, and do not talk dirty in front of
me, supposing that such things are beyond my comprehension, forgetting that
when we were younger we all did the things that the youngsters think that they
have just discovered themselves. The only thing that seems to have changed
drastically is the extent off risk-taking that young people now get up to, and
of course the wish to disfigure themselves with deplorable tattoos, and getting
so phased out on alcohol and drugs that every outing that they take must be
perilous to the extreme, with there seemingly being not even a smidgen of
forethought as to consequence of their actions.
Best
wishes,
Phillip
Clegg
HERE IS A COPY AND PASTE OF DESMOND
SMITH'S EMAIL OF 2010
from: desclaire
smith <desclairesmith@yahoo.com>
Date:
9 August 2010 14:35
Hi
Ladislao,
Greetings,
thanks for the very prompt reply, as well as the updates on the recent
activities of the Association.
None
of these names are familiar to me - there is one exception there were two
Pradas in my time, viz. Charles & Jeffrey.
I
do not know if these are the same guys from my period.
What
I would try to do will be to provide the really early days.
As
stated, the pre-cursor to the Abbey School was Mt St Benedict School.
The
original intent was apparently to have a day school.
The
start of the school was coupled with the start of the Seminary of St John
Vianney
Both
started in Jan. 1943.
The
day school began with approximately 15 Pupils,
The
majority were drawn from the Tunapuna Area, the exceptions were Pat Sellier
from St Joseph and myself from San Juan.
In
the Seminary were about six,
The
most notable were John Mendes - later Fr.Mendes, and Urban Peschier, later
Father Urban.
Some
of the others that I recall include Andrew Joseph.
Another
named Daly.
I
understand he dropped after a couple of years.
Father
Mendes had a younger brother Arnold who spent a few years before leaving.
The
reason I mention the Seminary at this time is because following the first term,
after missing quite a few days of school, Fr Bernard (the Cobra as we referred
to him) suggested to my Dad that I should become a broader and he could arrange
for me to live with the seminarians.
So
I lived with and followed all of the seminarian activities and their routine.
I
spent two terms (1943) with the seminarians.
In
1944, the true boarding school started, some of these names that I can recall
are Darwents - John and Michael, brothers, and their cousin Walter, from Palo
Seco,
The
Marcellin brothers, Andrew & Hamil, from San Fernando,
Ian
Mc Lean.
The
Knaggs Brothers, Jack &Arthur.
We
also had first overseas students, both from St Lucia.
In
1943 we had only one class. In 1944 we
suddenly had three classes.
From
one broader, myself, in 1944 we had about twenty boarders.
From
one class in 1943, come 1944 we had three classrooms.
The
expansion in 1944 was so rapid, that we not only had priests as teachers, we
got our first lay teacher.
(Subject
to correction I believe his name was Nello Lambert)
In
1945, there was much further expansion of the boarding school.
Initially,
we occupied half of the upper floor, the following year we occupied the entire
upper floor.
Down
stairs, Bro. Michael had the bakery and at the far end was where they extracted
the honey from the honey combs (just to give you some idea of the location).
It
should also be clear all of this was within the Monastery
If
you had female visitors, Mom, Sisters, you had to meet them outside of the Monastery
enclosure.
In
1945 the student body exploded and the eventual Abbey school site was excavated
and levelled.
Boy,
did we have fun on that site during the construction.
I
was fortunate to be present at the laying of the foundation stone.
This
was presided over by Archbishop Finbar Ryan.
Also present were Fr Prior Dom Hugh Van Der Sanden, Fr. Bernard, and
also signing the document on behalf of the students was John Darwent.
The
scroll was rolled and placed a large glass jar (alias a sweetie jar) it was
then placed in a niche at the main entrance.
Brother
Gabriel supervised the entire construction of the structure.
I
never occupied this building as I left for CIC for the Sept term.
Best
Wishes,
Desmond
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Juan Carlos
Carretero
Where is
he? Does anyone know?
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Photos:
Bandit
p22 The Early Times
06AL0010ALA,
Andres Larsen
08LK8374FB,
Raul Leoni and wife
04LL0005LLAWFE,
Louis and Christine Lacour
